I'm going to disagree with Will on the point that you earn more with more ads - but that is just because my extensive testing of using less ad units results in a significant improvement in my earnings in my industry. Here is what I posted in another thread: That was my experience for my niche. Now I'll give you an example of a time and industry where this technique works, because as in the case of Will it won't always work - and this is why it is always said around these forums - improving your AdSense earnings is a matter of testing and trialling new techniques and methods to find what works best for YOU. Anyway, say you have a page with an article on it. Your page has a header image followed by a AdSense leaderboard (that appears first in your source code) and below that you have a standard navigation bar on the left with a AdSense skyscraper below it (that appears second in your source code) and the article on the right of the navigation bar with a AdSense large rectangle unit above it. Now if the CTR for the following units was: leaderboard: 3% skyscraper: 1% large rectangle: 8% You then might seriously consider removing some of those ads. Why? because Google puts the best earning ads in the top ad unit in your source code which in this case will be leaderboard. Then the next best ads would be placed in your skyscraper and then the worst earning ads on your page will be place in your large rectangle which is your most prominent and highest CTR ad unit. So here is the thing - what is your industry like. In most industries where there are loads and loads of advertisers that are competing really hard and between the top 10 advertising bidding for he keyword related to your industry the bids might range from the #1 bid of $1 to the #10 bid of $0.70. In this case there isn't a big gap between the first and tenth bids therefore the order of your ad units my not be the biggest issue and the extra clicks gained from having more units on your page is probably the best method. However if you are in an industry like most where there is a couple of bigger bidders at the top but it quickly trails off then it might be in your interested to reduce the number of ads, sure you will get less clicks but your will get a better earning per click that more than justifies the reduced number of clicks. Plus you can monetize the sections that you removed your AdSense ads from with a different revenue source that doesn't effect your AdSense. Say for example the top bidder in your industry is $1 and the 5th bidder is $0.40 and the 10th bidder is $0.05 - It then makes a lot of sense to try and get the best ads in your highest CTR units because there is a BIG difference between the advertiser bids in your industry. Lets run the figures for a site that had the same CTR as I mentioned above with the following bid prices of ads 1 - 12. 1:$1.00 2:$0.95 3:$0.90 4:$0.70 5:$0.40 6:$0.30 7:$0.25 8:$0.15 9:$0.10 10:$0.05 11:$0.05 12:$0.05 So here are the averages of click value in each unit assuming that there are 4 ads in each unit. leaderboard: ($1.00 + $0.95 + $0.90 + $0.70) / 4 = $0.8875 skyscraper: ($0.40 + $0.30 + $0.25 + $0.15) / 4 = $0.275 large rectangle: ($0.10 + $0.05 + $0.05 + $0.05) / 4 = $0.0625 OK and here is the number of clicks each unit would get on average with 100 pageviews multiplied by the average earning per click: ------------------------------------ leaderboard: 3 x $0.8875 = $2.6625 skyscraper: 1 x $0.275 = $0.275 large rectangle: 8 x $0.0625 = $0.50 Total earnings = $3.44 ------------------------------------ OK so now let's do the sums without a skyscraper: leaderboard: 3 x $0.8875 = $2.6625 large rectangle: 8 x $0.275 = $2.20 Total earnings = $4.86 ------------------------------------ Now let's see the sums for just a large rectangle unit: large rectangle: 8 x $0.8875 = $7.10 Total earnings = $7.10 ------------------------------------ As you can see, that is the basic premise behind using less ads to make more money. Of course these figures are all just an example and it is completely dependent on your industry and the bid prices within your industry, and the only way to find out if you can make more money with this method is to TEST.
Burta, just move your leaderboard to the bottom of your HTML source. Leaderboards tend to have poor CTR.
If you are aware of anything more up to date do not hesitate to share the knowledge with us. BTW: Thanks for all the great tips in this thread, it helps to clear one's mind a little bit Regards
It was just an example - my site's aren't setup like thank . That said I actually find that leaderboards have traditionally done alright for me I mean they aren't pulling in 10% CTR but they have always achieved a couple of percent and they always seem to fit well into my site - and in the past the leaderboards I have positioned at the bottom of my site tend to do really poorly. But that is just what I have found happens with my sites.
Oh I see what you mean - yeah that is what I'd do if I was running a leaderboard and it isn't the highest CTR unit on the page. That said I don't seem to often run a leader board at the top of my site AND have a large rectangle unit in a high CTR position which normally requires it to be above the fold and close to the content - so it hasn't been an issue of yet - LOL I guess that's because I always just feel it's a little too spammy and whilst I like to think that I'm fairly aggressive with my positioning I draw the line on certain ad setups . So I'd normally be opting for either the leaderboard at the top of the large rectangle above the content, rarely both.
The same concept applies to using a large rectangle and a left skyscraper. In most web designs, the left skyscaper will appear first in the source code -- which is exactly what you don't want. It's really hard to beat the 336x280 large rectangle for CTR.
Thanks Will and Burta -- and the rest. I think I learn more in this thread than I did reading all my other research put together. Steve
I need to read this post more and read it again. I'm still learning even though I've had Adsense for a while now. Thanks for the info and I'll have to start trying somethings.